ask me to believe (for you, I will)
by MedusaOfTheSpecies
Summary: "He's too busy staring to even think about answering and that's half the problem, because he left to get peace that day but he found Astoria instead; he's been living in what feels like prison but she makes him feel alive." :: DracoAstoria, smuggled objects and shared nights. :: For QLFC Round Seven.


**Written for:**

QLFC Round Seven: Write about a witch or wizard attempting to smuggle (one or more) Muggle technology into Hogwarts.

Prompts: How many wizards does it take to make an aeroplane fly?", confusion, microwave

 **A/N: At no point in the prompt does it say the witch/wizard cannot succeed at smuggling.**

Hogwarts Religious Education Class: Write about someone who lives by a moral code and an event which places them in a predicament.

So many thanks to Sophy for all the suggestions and help on this fic. You rock, darling. Also, shoutout to AJ and Amber for editing, you two are awesome.

 **o.O.o**

"The world isn't divided into good people and Death Eaters, Draco," Astoria tells him one day, balanced cross-legged on the ledge of the Astronomy Tower.

Draco rolls his eyes at her. "I know that."

She turns to look at him then and, usually he'd compare Astoria to the way the sunset hits his mother's garden as spring blooms, but right now she looks like the world when winter is about to come, when something once beautiful starts wilting away.

"I don't think you do," she says sadly and turns away from him to watch the sunset.

 **o.O.o**

"This," Astoria says, pulling a shrunken object out of her pocket with a flourish, "is a Muggle microwave!"

Draco yelps, falling down onto the hard stone. "Are you crazy?" he hisses. "If any one saw you with that, you'd be—"

"Be what, Draco?" Astoria asks passionately. "A blood traitor? Excuse me if I'm not interested in killing millions of people because of some terrible idea of superiority."

"Yes, you'd be exactly that," Draco snaps. "If any of the Slytherins saw this and told their parents, you would be instantly branded."

Astoria rolls her eyes. "Let them. I'm not ashamed of my beliefs."

Draco rubs at his forehead wearily, cursing the day he went up to the tower for peace and instead found an insomniac teenage girl with a habit of making his life harder.

"Where did you even get it?" Draco asks, raising an annoyed eyebrow.

Astoria grins. "Smuggled it in. I dare say Mother won't be impressed, but you need to be educated."

"You're an idiot." Draco presses his hand to his forehead, rubbing tiredly at his temples. "I'm not bailing you out of detention when you're caught."

"If," Astoria corrects and beams at him brightly enough to rival even spelled sunlight. "Have more faith in me, Draco."

He's too busy staring to even think about answering and that's half the problem, because he left to get peace that day but he found Astoria instead; he's been living in what feels like prison but she makes him feel alive.

He can't bring himself to regret meeting her no matter how hard he tries.

 **o.O.o**

"Want to hear a tragedy?" Astoria asks and answers her own question before he even opens his mouth to speak. "I have the best joke known to mankind and you don't know enough Muggle stuff to get it."

"An absolute crime," Draco says dryly, not even attempting to hide his disinterest.

Astoria rolls her eyes. "You're so lucky that I'm about to change that. Just wait, Malfoy, I'm about to blow your damn mind."

Draco's eyes widen; Astoria and blowing minds is a combination that can only lead to a stay in the hospital wing and a few broken ribs.

"Astoria—" he starts but she rolls her eyes and pulls something out of her pocket.

It's a miniature model of what can only be a Muggle device, and the moment Astoria flips a switch, it begins to fly circles around them.

Draco watches in a mix of confusion and horror as it begins a smooth descent, setting down near Astoria. She scoops it up, charming it weightless and tossing it back carelessly into her robe pocket.

Draco stares. "What in the world," he manages, "is that atrocity?"

Astoria's brow furrows. "Surely even you've heard of a Muggle plane before? It runs on technology, and so does this tiny version."

Draco resists the urge to both laugh and cry, settling on a sneer instead. "Greengrass, I'm a Malfoy and a Pureblood, and unlike you, I don't waste my time with Muggle toys."

"It's not a toy!" Astoria glares. "Muggles fly in them."

"They… _fly_ in that metal container?" Draco hisses with barely contained disgust. "This is why nobody normal associates with Muggles."

"I associate with Muggles," Astoria says in a dangerously soft voice.

Draco rolls his eyes. "Exactly, Greengrass. That's why I said nobody normal."

Astoria looks like she's about to burst into a rant for a second before she calms instantly, her face turning sweet and kind. "Well then, I did promise you a Muggle joke, didn't I?"

Draco looks at her with mistrust, unable to believe her rapid change in attitude. "Yes, you did, but don't. I'd rather not be infected with their lowly sense of humour."

"How many wizards does it take to fly a Muggle airplane?" Astoria asks, ignoring his remark.

Draco pauses. "Zero," he ventures. "Because no sane wizard would step into that death trap."

"Wrong," Astoria says cheerfully. "Two. One dumb one to charm it and one Ministry officer to throw him or her into jail because they refuse to see that there's nothing wrong with Muggle stuff."

Draco stops. He stares. Then he lets out a groan so loud it could be heard from Hogsmeade.

"Greengrass, how do you even get these objects into Hogwarts?" Draco asks, rubbing at his forehead wearily. "It's banned. Surely even you know that."

Astoria shrugs. "I attempted to smuggle it in."

Draco pauses for a second, waiting, but it quickly becomes clear Astoria isn't going to add anything else. "And?"

"I succeeded." Astoria laughs, as clear and smooth as twinkling bells.

Draco stares at her incredulously. "How?" he demands. "No one succeeds."

"Well," Astoria pauses, as if deciding his trustworthiness. Eventually, she beckons him closer. Draco leans in toward her until he's so close he's sure she can hear his heart beating in his chest.

Astoria's smile is more serious than he's ever seen and Draco stares into the black holes that her eyes mirror in this darkness as she opens her mouth to whisper, "I shrunk them and smuggled them in my bra."

"What?!" Draco jerks back, his face looking like a deer in headlights.

Astoria laughs again, wrapping an arm around his shoulder. "Sorry, Draco. I don't know what you expected though." She winks. "Clearly I needed to find a place Flich wouldn't search."

"But what about magic?" Draco asks, still put out from her revelation and that interrupted moment where they were face-to-face, closer than ever before.

"What about it?" Astoria says, waggling her eyebrows and Draco smirks despite himself. She's absolutely batty, there's no other word to describe Astoria Greengrass, but not even he can pretend to be disgusted anymore, not when she's his closest confidant.

When he voices that aloud, she grins. "You're not too bad yourself, Malfoy."

It's a compliment from a Muggle-stuff-smuggling Pureblood with messy hair and a habit of not sleeping at night, but it's also the reason he wears a smile when he falls asleep that night.

 **o.O.o**

"Draco. Years ago, I knew a boy who made all the wrong choices. Please, let me help you," Albus Dumbledore says wearily, and his eyes are fatigued but warm like his mother's when she used to cradle him in her arms and sing him to sleep.

He doesn't want to kill Albus Dumbledore.

"I don't want your help! Don't you see?! I have to do this! I have to kill you... or he's going to kill me! " Draco yells back, his voice cracking. He's so exhausted of living in fear and more scared still because he holds more than just his life in his hands.

The Death Eaters behind him laugh and taunt, smirks adorning their faces like bloody crowns.

Draco isn't thinking about them though. He's thinking about a girl with a mischievous smile telling him there's a difference between being a Death Eater and a bad person, about smuggled airplanes floating around him as he stares, about Astoria pressed against him as she whispers her secrets in his ears.

He can't kill Dumbledore. He can't help drain the light from this world, but it's not up to him.


End file.
